


The five times Iwaizumi kept his promises to Oikawa and the one time he didn’t.

by Erin12



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 5 Times, Childhood Friends, Eventual Happy Ending, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-04-16 21:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14174160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erin12/pseuds/Erin12
Summary: Iwaizumi Hajime is the man of his word, and throughout his life, he always kept his promises to Oikawa, except for that one crucial time he forgot.





	1. Kindergarten

**Author's Note:**

> Happy IwaOi Day! I hope everyone is having a great time with all the IwaOi goodness.   
> Thanks to @ anoneesan.tumblr.com for your Beta-ing! I know it was last minute, so I appreciate you were so fast and helpful!

Tooru scooted closer to Iwaizumi. He bit his lower lip and looked around the park to make sure that they were indeed alone.Iwaizumi was a bit annoyed that Tooru didn’t spit it out, but he did seem scared, and he gave him those puppy dog eyes that made his insides feel soft and warm with a feeling he couldn’t name at the moment. Tooru scooted closer on the ground, clutching his bag, “I didn’t tell Mommy, but I put in an extra snack for the both of us. So we can share it during lunch, Hajime-chan.”

Iwaizumi saw the smile that formed on his face, and he looked scandalize, “But our teacher said that only one snack per a student on the field trip. And I already have one too.”

Tooru giggled, “Its okay, we can share the extra one. But you must not tell anyone!”

Hajime nodded and put out his pinky finger forward, “I promise.”

They quickly exchanged the sudden vow not to tell a soul. They heard their names across the schoolyard, and they went to go on the bus to their field trip location hand in hand.He vowed to protect this secret of Tooru’s since he was his best friend, would make sure nothing happened to hurt Tooru in any way.

Their field trip to the local botanical garden was not as fun as Iwaizumi hoped. He wanted to see more insects, but the only insects he saw were butterflies and a few worms here and there. His teacher told him that cicadas and beetles were not out at the end of May, but he could find them more in the summertime. The only saving grace was that Tooru enjoyed himself by looking at the butterfly’s and that at least made Iwaizumi happy. He got to see his best friend smile and point out at their pretty colors. He enjoyed seeing Tooru excited.

It was lunchtime and Tooru, and Hajime planned to share their picnic blanket, but it was not meant to be. When Hajime was washing his hands and gone with one of the helpers and few of the boys, there was a fight that broke out amongst Tooru and few of the girls. Tooru saw Hajime and tried to run up to him, but the girls pulled Tooru’s shirt and shouted, “No, Tooru-kun! Sit with us! It’s unfair Hajime-kun always gets all of your attention.”

“But Hajime-chan is my best friend,” Tooru said to the girls in a gentler tone than Hajime would have told if girls were in the way of having lunch with his best friend.

“It’s not like you made a promise to be with him for lunch. You guys always sit together at school! It’s unfair.“ One of the girls that seemed like the ringleader of the group shouted back.

“But—“ Tooru looked uneasy and before Hajime could step in to help the teacher clapped her hands, and the students stopped and looked at their teacher, “Everyone let’s take a breather. Rika-chan, let go of Tooru-kun’s shirt.”

Rika grabbed hold of the shirt tighter, “But sensei—“

“Rika-chan,” the teacher kneeled down to eye level, “We can reach an agreement okay. How about this, let’s bring your picnic blanket and Hajime-kun’s blanket, and Tooru-kun can sit between you to. How about that?”

Rika tumbled her lips and nodded, the teacher smiled and patted her head, “That’s a good girl. Will that work with you Tooru-kun and Hajime-kun?”

Hajime shrugged, “Sure, as long as I’m with Tooru, it’s all good.”

Tooru looked at Hajime and gave him a hundred watt smile, “Hajime-chan!”

“It’s settled then, Rika-chan, let go of Tooru-kun’s shirt and let’s all have lunch.”

Their lunch was pretty much the Rika and other girls garneing their attention towards Tooru, who just smiled and tried to play with them. It didn’t help that Tooru kept on looking at Hajime for help, but the girls kept on staring at him as if he were the reason for all the trouble and the worst thing that had happened to them. Hajime sighed and ate his lunch peacefully and started to munch on his snack; he felt a tug on his side, and Tooru gave him a knowing smile and Hajime returned. The moment was there Hajime thought that Tooru opened his pouch and tried to give his snack to Hajime sneakily. Hajime extended his hand, and at that moment it was all ruined, Rika got up and pointed her finger, “Sensei! Hajime-kun has a second snack.”

All eyes were on him, and Hajime annoyed at Rika, first interrupting his lunchtime with Tooru but accusing him as a lair, “I don’t have a second snack.”

“Yeah huh, what’s in your hand then.”

It was the snack that Tooru just gave to him, Tooru was about to speak when the teacher came up, and Hajime can feel the anger that was boiling down, “Hajime-kun, is that true?”

Iwaizumi’s first instinct is that he put his arm in front of Tooru to protect him and he can feel the hands-on arm was Tooru trying to move forward and confess that it was he and Iwaizumi would not allow that.

“I didn’t bring another candy, but I did receive another one.” Iwaizumi said.

“Then you accepted candy from a stranger?” The teacher asked.

“No. I didn’t.” Iwaizumi said strongly.

“Hajime-kun, come over and let’s talk.” Iwaizumi nodded and followed the teacher. They sat at the teacher’s spot, and he knew he should be intimidated, but he wasn’t. It was to protect Tooru he would never be intimidated by anyone who wants to hurt him.

“Hajime-kun, did Tooru-kun gave you that candy?”

Hajime clamped up. He refused to rat out his friend.

“Hajime-kun!”

Hajime didn’t look at the teacher and refused to say anything. The teacher sighed, “Okay, then the rest of the day you will be sitting out with us. Get your things, and when you are ready, you can go back to your friends. If you don’t tell us by the end, we will tell your mother.”

Hajime nodded. When he came back, Tooru already picked up his things and put it in his bag.

“Thanks, Tooru.”

“Hajime-chan, you can tell the teacher that it was mine.”

“No. A promise is a promise. I don’t want to break any of your promises.”

“Hajime-chan!” Tooru jumped and hugged him. Hajime blinked at the surprise, and then Tooru smiled at him, “I’ll talk to the teachers. They will forgive us both! Wait right here.”

“Wait! Tooru!” Hajime will not have Tooru punished too.

Hajime grabbed his things and ran after Tooru before it was too late. He saw Tooru talking to the teacher quickly, Hajime jumped towards Tooru and tackled him to the ground. The teachers yelped in surprise.

“Hajime-chan! What are you doing?”

“I’m not letting you get into trouble.”

“I’m the one that broke the rules.”

“But—“

The teacher whistled this time, and Hajime and Tooru stopped and looked up at the teacher who Iwaizumi would always forever think that she had an evil spirit coming out of her.

“You two, sit. Be quiet. Tell me everything.”

Hajime and Tooru sat quickly, and Tooru confessed to everything. At the end, they were in time out for rest of the field trip and forbidden to speak to anyone else and must sit with the teachers for the rest of the time and on the bus ride back and their mothers will hear everything and they will most likely give Hajime and Tooru a lecture. They were sitting quietly on the bench at one of the gardens, and their legs were swinging absently and all of a sudden Tooru giggled. Hajime looked at him with curiosity, “Hajime-chan, it’s funny. I got what I wanted.”

“What’s that?”

"To spend rest of the day with you like this.” Tooru leaned next to him and put his head on Iwaizumi’s shoulder. Iwaizumi felt a faint blush rising to his cheeks as the smell of Tooru’s hair filled his nostrils. Hajime would never admit this in the future but he thought this was the first time he understands Rika and all the other girls, he didn’t want to share Tooru with anyone else too for a long time and just being together made him happy.

“Yeah, I agree,” Hajime squeezed Tooru’s hand. Tooru beamed at Hajime and rested back on Hajime’s shoulder. They enjoyed the rest of their trip, hand in hand, looking at the flowers from a distant.


	2. Calling Him Iwa-chan

During the summer of fifth grade, Oikawa noticed a significant change from Iwaizumi. Sure, they still went out and played, had sleepovers, and went to youth volleyball club together. That was the year that also changed because they were split up into specialty to train more: Iwaizumi joined a group of kids and some who were older into those that are wing spikers, and he was in the setter’s group. Slowly Oikawa felt that more and more he was separating from Iwaizumi, it was the small stuff at first. Instead of going home together, he would leave with the wing-spiker group to go and grab some ice cream at the convenience store. When they made plans to go and catch bugs, Iwaizumi brought along his friends from the wing-speaker groups, and Oikawa started to get annoyed. They were taking time away from his precious Iwaizumi. Oikawa felt that their distance grew more significant when one day they were walking towards the gym for their youth volleyball practice, Oikawa himself was chatting nonchalantly when Iwaizumi coughed which made Oikawa stop in his tracks.

“Hey, I think we should call each other by our surname from now on.”  
Oikawa stared at him in shock. “What? Why Hajime-chan? You’re still Hajime-chan.”

“We're not kindergarteners. We're fifth-graders, maybe we should start being grown ups.”

“I don’t approve. Hajime-chan is Hajime-chan!”

“It doesn’t matter if you approve or not. Come on, Oikawa.”  
  
Iwaizumi calling him by his surname and not by Tooru for the first time since he could remember sent shock waves through him. He didn’t understand why Iwaizumi wanted to distance himself from him. He gritted his teeth and spat out, “No! I refuse. And my name is Tooru. Not Oikawa.”

“Oikawa is still your name.”

Oikawa got annoyed for some reason, “Than I’m not calling you by anything!”

Oikawa sprinted down the road towards the center, he vaguely heard Iwaizumi calling after him, but it didn’t matter now, because it was not the name that he wanted to hear Iwaizumi calling him.  
  
After that morning, the following week had been horrible to Oikawa. He and Iwaizumi didn’t spend lunchtime together; they didn’t go to and from home to the center together anymore. There were no sleepovers, bug catching days, or going to the convenience store together. Even if Oikawa stayed late to practice his jump serve, there was no Iwaizumi there to practice with him or wait for him to leave holding a water bottle.  
  
Oikawa was resolute; he refused to break down in apologizing to Iwaizumi. It was Iwaizumi’s fault for trying to distance away from them and not wanting to hang out with him anymore.

  
Oikawa hit the ball with his odd number practice of jump serves and once again it hit in the square middle of the net. He got frustrated and squatted down. Nothing was going well at all. His best friend was acting strange, he couldn’t do the jump serve correctly, and even though he got along with his teammates and his fellow setters decently, he was still better, he hasn’t formed a connection as Hajime has with the other wing spikers. Oikawa thought it was unfair. _Hajime-chan is unreasonable, anyone who knew him young can call him by that name. Hajime-chan's grandmothers do it, his aunts do it, and even Oikawa’s mom calls him Hajime-chan. Why can’t he call him Hajime-chan anymore?_  
  
He got up and grabbed another ball from the bin and started to hit it hard. This time the ball did manage to go over the net, and it was in, but it was not strong enough which made Oikawa sigh aggressively.  
  
He felt a cold water bottle along his neck, and he yelped. He turned to see the very person that has been causing him problems this whole week. He side-eyed him unsure how to proceed. Iwaizumi had this look of determination, and he looked apologetic. Oikawa took the water bottle from Hajime’s hand and poured some of the cold water into his mouth. It felt good.

“You need some breaks in between these practices,” Hajime said.  
Oikawa pouted but countered, “I thought you were going home with the other wing speakers?”

“I did, but I got worried about you.”

Oikawa gave him a look and drank from the water bottle again. He would not fall for Iwaizumi caring about him. No. He was still mad at him. He saw Iwaizumi's shoulders sag a little and his feet shift side to side. He was waiting for Oikawa to speak. Oikawa just kept on drinking his water and wiping the sweat off his brows with his shirt. He didn’t want to be the first one to give in, and it was Iwaizumi’s fault that he was feeling like this. Iwaizumi sighed and started up again.

“Oikawa. Listen.”

There it was again; it was no longer Tooru or even Tooru-chan but Oikawa. It felt like a dirty word to him.  
“Stop that! I’m closer to you than any of your wing spikers, any kid at school, our class, and anyone. Why you want to distance from me, aren’t I like your family?!”

“Because I don’t want to think of you like family!” Iwaizumi roared back and for some reason that confused and sad. How could Iwaizumi not think of him as a family? He was there for him when he accidentally broke auntie’s vase; he was there all summer running around in the blazing sun catching cascades, how could Iwaizumi not see him as a family anymore, what did he do to get this treatment? Oikawa flung the water bottle to the side and gave Iwaizumi the nastiest glare that he could. He refused to see the hurt expression on Iwaizumi’s face that clearly said he didn’t mean to say what he said, but something snapped in Oikawa that he didn’t like. All he could say was, “Leave me alone! I don’t want to see you anymore!”

Iwaizumi changed to an expression that Oikawa had never noticed or at least one that he had never used on him, “You're shitty.” He turned around and left. Oikawa stuck his tongue out at Iwaizumi’s back and returned to his practice. He didn’t care if he sounded harsh to Iwaizumi. It was his fault to make him feel like that.  
  
The stars were out already when Oikawa decided to end his self-practice. He can guarantee his mom would not be pleased since he would be home closer to dinner, but it didn’t matter. He got to practice some more, and it did give him a chance to work up a better sweat, but the image of Iwaizumi hurt still haunted Oikawa’s head throughout the practice. He didn’t mean to hurt his best friend, and the guy he thought was like his brother since all of his siblings were years apart, but it just made him feel uneasy for Iwaizumi to say that they were not family. Oikawa walked down the stairs and at the bottom he saw a familiar figure waiting with his bag over his shoulder. Their eyes met. Oikawa wasn’t sure if how to proceed. He first averted his eyes away from Iwaizumi, but then he remembered how he looked during his practice and he did feel bad about it.

“I’m sorry, Haji—I mean Iwai---Iwaizumi-kun.” He finished pathetically. He looked away from Iwaizumi when he said it, but the silence reached out longer than anticipated. He waited. Waited for Iwaizumi to say anything. He heard robust laughter coming from below. The laugh that felt forever since he last heard it, but at the same time he didn’t like it. He did what Iwaizumi had asked him to do. He could feel his nose scrunch up, and he glared at Iwaizumi, but he also noticed that his eyes were kind again. The eyes that he was used to looking, the eyes that gave him comfort. His best friend. The boy that he somehow knew would always be with him.

“It does sound weird hearing you calling me Iwaizumi-kun. We’re not just acquaintances.”

“But you said we are not like family.” Oikawa pouted.

“No. We’re not.” Iwaizumi said in without hesitation, Oikawa was about to protest, but Iwaizumi put his hand up, “We’re partners.”

Partners? Oikawa liked that sound of it. He didn’t think about it, but the sound that Iwaizumi said made it sound like they were equals to one another.

“Oikawa. You’re more than my best friend, my brother, and my childhood friend. You are my partner. I didn’t want my partner to call me something that my family could call me, the other teammates, classmates, or friends to call me.” Iwaizumi said.

“Than why didn’t you say that in the beginning?” Oikawa retorted back.

“I was too embarrassed.” Iwaizumi retorted looking away with a light blush forming on his cheeks.

“So this whole fight was because you were embarrassed to admit to the truth?” Oikawa crossed his arms, definitely not pleased.

“Again sorry. I wanted to tell you in the gym, but you weren’t listening to me.”  
Oikawa knew that Iwaizumi got him there. He thought for a second if Iwaizumi thought of him as a partner than partners give unique nicknames to people, he gave Iwaizumi a toothy grin.

“Okay. I’ll forgive you this time. I’ll allow you to call me Oikawa because I am confident I can tell the difference of your voice compared to others, unlike Iwaizumi-kun.”  
He waited for Iwaizumi to insult him back, but since he didn’t hear anything, he continued,

“But you must promise me that you’ll never allow anyone except your partner to call you this. Even if you the person you love begs you to call this nickname, even if you are married, even to other friends and your family may not call you this.”

Iwaizumi tilted his head for a second and gave him a questioning look, but that only took a few seconds, as he shrugged and said, “Fine. I promise.”

Oikawa smiled and hoped down the steps to be the same step as Iwaizumi, “Let’s go home, Iwa-chan!”

Iwaizumi gave a shocked look first, but he gave a toothy grin back to Oikawa, “Sure. But you're buying me something to drink waiting out here forever.”  
And just like that things were returned to normal between Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Years later Oikawa asks Iwa-chan if he could call him Hajime when they became boyfriends but Iwaizumi refused to say that only his partner can call him that, Oikawa wasn’t sure he should be happy or upset at his old self for making Iwaizumi take that promise.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:  
> Thank you Ace for beta-ing! You are the best! 
> 
> This was later than I anticipated, I had a whole other story planned out of when Oikawa called Iwaizumi, Iwa-chan. But it just didn’t feel right, so I re-wrote and came up with this. I liked how this came out and got to explore the chance when Oikawa and Iwaizumi were just besties. 
> 
> Iwa-chan is calling Oikawa shitty; I went back and forth on that. Since I know in Japanese there is “hana-kuso” which means “shit from your nose” or burgers. So I figured by fifth grade they would have figured out what it means.


End file.
